Rosie makes me look like an actual trainer!

Just a quick post.  I worked with Rosie more on lunging last evening.  Previously it's been walk only.  Last evening I increased the speed to trotting with a little cantering worked in.  Not very long, because I don't want her legs to be stressed on small circles, but long enough so that she understood the concept and it wasn't just accidental speeding up like I see some horses do on the lunge line. 

That little girl tried so hard to get things right and did better than any other horse I've worked with at this stage of her training.  I'm always so happy and impressed with her work ethic.  She has a pony-tude when just hanging out, but she is all business when it's time to learn something new. 

Love my little girl!!!

Happy Birthday Rosie!!!

June 9th was Rosie's 2nd birthday!  My little girl is growing up!

I technically don't know the exact date of her birthday, since I know nothing about her past before she was dumped at the auction a year and a half ago.  I'm just going by the age my vet thought she was and then picked a day in that month. 

I chose the 9th because that is my neighbor's birthday.  This neighbor, Evelyn, is the epitome of graciousness and kindness--and she is also 91 years old!!!  I want Rosie to have those qualities, as well as a long life, so I hope that giving her that birthday might bring them out ... somehow I don't think Rosie is on the same page with that--she is definitely her own pony.  Oh well, I've tried, right?  I also hope Evelyn thinks of it as a compliment that I have chosen that day to be Rosie's day.  After all, Rosie is my special little heart horse and nothing but the best will do for my little girl!

I had an idea to decorate Rosie with balloons, jewels, streamers, and a birthday hat and take a picture.  Well, the weather forgot to cooperate with my plan.  It was SOOOO windy that day.  Nothing stayed in place. The hat kept flipping to the side, the streamers kept flipping every which way and wouldn't stay flat, and the worst of the worst----my three big birthday balloons flew away!!!  They were going to be the centerpiece of my birthday display. 

I had everything on Rosie and was leading her around trying to choose the best place to take the picture.  I had decided to make a loop in the ribbons dangling from the balloons and attach them to the overcheck hook of her harness saddle, rather than tie them hard and fast.  She was handling them well even though the three large balloons were whipping around and crashing over her back and head, but I didn't want to risk the chance of a meltdown considering the wind.  If something were to happen and I couldn't get the balloons off her quickly it wouldn't be pretty.  I thought they were safe from the wind the way I had them hooked to the harness, but the wind was no match for balloons already wanting to go north and must have just sucked them right through the little opening at the bottom of the hook.  I turned around ready to take the picture, and ... and  ... no more balloons!   

I was so disappointed!  But then I thought about how impressive that she had allowed me to dress her up in this get-up with balloons crashing over her back and head (really, they were making so much noise and flying every which way they were even annoying me standing next to her) and decided a picture wasn't such a big deal.  I would have to just go with my memory in my head, rather than in photo form. 

Here are some pictures I did get of her with the remainder of her dollar store birthday decorations. 

 

The banner below was supposed to lie flat--I had it tied to her halter and looped around her tail, back to her halter--instead, it just blew all over the place.  She was a saint to even tolerate that.  But, wouldn't a balloon bouquet have just completed the picture??  Spilled milk ... only up in the sky with the airplanes by the time I took this pic.  If someone finds a flowery happy birthday balloon, a mini-mouse happy birthday balloon, and a large Princess balloon--all pink--land in their yard un-poofed, give me a yell.

 

 

 

And, proof of how windy it was

 

 

I made a mistake!

Rosie has been hanging out at home in the back paddock for most of the time since last fall.   I decided that I'd take her for a walk in my town, along my busy state highway today.  Looking back ... not the best decision.   SOOOO much traffic--as I thought--lots of boats and trucks pulling huge 5th wheel campers. Lots of motorcycles, some very loud and sounded like they had jake brakes on them.

In my defense, I honestly didn't think she would have a problem with things, since she was doing so well with traffic last fall.  But, it's been a long time since she's been out there, and today really was a crazy day here.  She started out fairly well but then kept getting more and more scared and wound up. She did a few airs above the ground and bigger spooks than she's ever done.   OMG!!!  Where did my solid, confident pony go????   She was shaking a couple of times--just so overwhelmed. They may be little horses, but they are still HORSES and get spooked.

There was constant traffic,  dogs barking, and someone using a nail gun --way too much and not the right day for a "remember this Rosie??" walk.   I'm SOOOO tired. Was out a lot longer than I expected to be and had to use more muscle than I usually do. If she had been a big horse, I'm sure she would have gotten away from me. One spook body slammed me and knocked me good--she is a massive little beast.

 I didn't want to just turn around and return to the barn while she was scared and have that be her last memory, so I found a place back off the road about 50 feet where she could graze and settle down. My neighbor also brought her some carrots to help her get her mind off her problems--that was great because my pocket treat stash was getting low. I give her treats here and there on our walks when she is calm and when a particularly scary vehicle is headed towards us--"tractor trailers taste yummy!"--again, only when she is behaving so I don't reward crazy behavior.

She calmed down some while we were back from the road, and I felt it was an OK time to bring her back to my house where we hung out in front of the house for a while longer continuing to watch the activity, walking back and forth, and grazing here and there--reinforcing "being out by the road and campers/motorcycles taste good."   She was pretty much back to normal by the time we headed back to the barn. It reminded me of our first highway walk last spring when she became very overwhelmed.  She is an sensitive, emotional little pony.  Everything she does is with her whole heart.  I guess I forgot about that when I came up with this crazy walk plan for today.

I learned my lesson.  It was not the best day to do this.  Next time I'll choose a quieter time, like a Sunday morning.  After she has a couple of good experiences again with quieter traffic days, then we can tackle the tougher stuff.  Live and learn, right?

Trust is everything, and the green, green grass of home

I decided today was a good day to put some of the harness on Rosie.  She has never had a girth on her and tends to be very opinionated and demonstrative about anything she deems uncomfortable.  I knew she wouldn't like a snug girth ... but I also knew she trusted me and would accept it. 

I have spent a lot of time flopping the saddle without the girth all over her body and legs for a few short sessions.  She has been fine with that.  Rosie trusts me a lot.  That said, Rosie has a big attitude and doesn't hesitate to tell me when she doesn't like something.  It's never a dramatic response, but there is often some nipping at me or the offending piece of equipment involved.  Many people would say "You must stop her from nipping!!!  That is completely unacceptable!!"  Well, in a perfect world that is true.  In Rosie's world, it's her way of getting the frustration out of her system and working her way towards acceptance.  It's part of the Rosie process with certain things that either frustrate her, make her feel uncomfortable, and sometimes even things that mildly scare her. She is not the shy little wall flower pony who "sucks it up" like Jerry is--Jerry wouldn't bite anyone even if he were being strangled and someone stuck their hand in his mouth.  Rosie ... she must "voice" her objections.  It's part of who she is.

I don't "let her get away with" biting or nipping, but I don't get super dramatic with my response to it either.  I do a finger poke to her jaw with a firm "No" or "Rose, stop it." but that's it.  Yelling at her, slapping her, making her move her feet at break neck speed, and all of the typical ways people handle a bite won't get me anywhere with Rosie.  It's much simpler to let Rosie be Rosie--she always ends up voicing her objections a couple of times and then settling down, and then all is well.  No fuss, no muss.  That is just Rosie.  And, I guess, it's part of understanding each other and accepting Rosie for who she is--work with her, rather than against her.  It works for us.  I wouldn't want her to be a child's pony because of this quirk of hers, but she's NOT a child's pony--trust me, I'm far from a child ... FAR from it, lol. 

So, I placed the saddle on her back, attached the girth, and gently tightened it.  She wasn't pleased, complained a little, but still stood for it.  Snugged it a little more so it wouldn't slide and started walking her around.  She thought it was all pretty odd ... for about one minute.  And, then it was "OK, I got this--you are boring me."  I snugged it up almost as much as I would if I were hitching her to a cart ... just a little nip of objection.  Led her around some more--no big deal.  Tugged on it, rocked it from side to side.  No reaction more than a flick of an ear and "What in the world are you doing?  Mom, you are so weird."  Took her picture and called it a day.  The whole process took about 10 minutes (including posing for the picture!).  She never jumped around, never freaked out or anything even remotely close to that.  She just accepted her new equipment and announced that she was now bored.  I didn't have time to add more parts today, but the crupper will be next.  I have had a lead rope under her tail and she was fine with that (again, after a minute of "What is this crap??"--As I said, the girl has 'tude).  I don't expect the actual crupper will be a big deal either. 

Rosie firmly believes I won't hurt her or let bad things happen to her.  I drove by with my new riding mower/tractor and lawn cart banging as she was standing by the fence yesterday.  She started to back away to leave the scene--"That new thing Mom has is noisy and scary!"  I called to her and told her things were OK.  She stopped and held still as I drove past her a few times.  Last fall, I wanted to get her used to the driving cart.  We worked slowly through stages to prepare her.  I felt she was at the point where we could bring the shafts of the cart into position while I was leading her and Mike was handling the cart.  Even though she likes Mike, she was uneasy when he tried to bring the cart up and kept side stepping and pivoting out of the way.  We switched, with him leading her and my operating the cart.  When I brought the shafts up she initially raised her head with an "I don't like this" look, but I told her it was OK and then she settled right down, accepted it, and we walked around the paddock with the cart in driving position.  No fuss, no muss.  I feel honored that she trusts me so much. 

"I'm a big girl now!"

Spring in upstate NY is so GREEN!!!  So gorgeous!  Seems like such a shame that I have fatty horses that can't have full access to all that green.  Sigh ... But, Jerry seems to be my only horse with appetite control.  Rosie has her muzzle back on--she started putting on weight even with her short pasture grazing time.  I switched her over to a Breathe Easy muzzle with the larger nose holes and she seems like that better ... well "like" is a strong word.  Let's just say she isn't flipping out any more and has figured out how to graze with it without getting so frustrated.  Jerry is much better about gluttony, but he was getting a bit of a belly.  I started putting a muzzle on him too.  He does fine with it.  Babe still wears hers.  She is getting VERY good at grazing with it--that girl lets nothing stand between her and her grass.  I may need to shorten her time or switch to every other day of the good stuff.  She still has her diet pasture to nibble on, so I don't feel she is as deprived as the minis who have pretty much a stubble/dirt lot.  They do make the best of it and find every last blade of grass to be had. 

 

Rosie with her "starvation torture device" back on--Sorry Rose, but I love you too much to let you get sick and have sore feet

 



Jerry back in Pony Paddock after grazing for a while-"I'm full--Rosie is still out there.  She's a pig."

 



Babe says "I'm full now too.  It's hot and I want to just veg out in my stall for the rest of the day.  Take this thing off"

 

 

Ponies back in Pony Paddock, fly sprayed, masked, and ready for another rough afternoon of  doing ... umm ... Nothing!

 

Everything is so green and beautiful.  I have a lot of buttercups in the pasture this time of year (I know they are toxic to horses, but mine never touch them.)

 

 

 



Always remember, plans CAN (and maybe SHOULD) change

It's important to be flexible, especially where horses are concerned.  It can mean the difference between training successes and failures, getting injured and staying safe while handling our horses, happy horses vs. stressed horses, happy horse handlers vs. stressed horse handlers ... I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.

Our weather has been very strange today--sunny for a bit, then dark and cloudy, then cold/windy with spits of rain--or even little ice balls (WHAAATTT??!!), then back to sunny and not so cold.  Welcome to upstate New York in mid May!  The horses are feeling frisky.  I'm thinking about whether to get my winter barn coat back out.  Nah--think positive!

I'll start off with a Rosie update:   Thankfully, she is my most frisky horse!!  It's great to see her running, bucking, and shaking her head at the dogs and Jerry because she spent most of last week standing around with her head hanging, depressed and painful after her vaccination reaction.  I'm VERY happy to report that today she is completely back to normal except for still having a knot on her neck.  It's small--probably an inch or so--and it doesn't seem as tender when I press on it as it was a couple of days ago.  She is taking her antibiotic pills like a pro.  I went from breaking them in half and just putting them in her grain, which she wised up to and started eating around, to dissolving them in a little bit of water and pouring it over her grain.  She munches it right down.  Three more days of this and she is back to normal tasting grain--hang in there Rose, we are almost there!

I had planned to put part of the harness on Rosie today for the first time, post a picture of her new feat, and write about it here.  I haltered Rosie, got the harness out and could see the weather had made her more spooky and tense than usual.  I started to proceed with my original plan of putting the saddle/girth/crupper on her ... but then I paused, listened to my gut (always listen to your gut!), and decided today wasn't the best day to introduce her to all of that.  Instead, I just placed the saddle on/off her back and rubbed it all over her body repeatedly.  I could tell by her reaction that was plenty for the circumstances.  She's usually Miss Cool about new things, but she flinched a few times, raised her head, and got a little buggy eyed with just doing this.  That told me she wasn't ready for more.  After messing with her and that part of the harness until she was comfortable with it, which really wasn't more than 5-10 minutes, I gave her a treat and called it a successful training experience--which it truly was. 

I believe I made the right decision to hold off on harnessing her.  There is no reason to rush--heck, she's not even two years old.  I'll choose a day when the weather is warm and she is calmer.  That might be some evening this week ... that might be in a month.  I'll let her guide me about when is the right time.  Always remember plans CAN (and maybe SHOULD) change.

I wrote in an earlier post (Equine Battle of the Bulge) that I was going to put a grazing muzzle on Rosie and Babe.  Well, my plan changed there too.  After a couple more grazing muzzle sessions with Rosie I decided it just wasn't worth the stress she was feeling while wearing it.  Her stress level increased the more times she wore it.  Rosie is a very sensitive, emotional horse.  The last time she wore the muzzle she was so upset that she was wild eyed, obviously frustrated, mean to Jerry while she was wearing it, and attacked her hay like she was starving the minute I took it off.  It took her over an hour to calm herself back down to normal.  That degree of stress response is not healthy for us; it's not healthy for horses either.  I thought about it and compared it to the times I've turned her out onto Pony Paddock Annex (PPA) for a short period of time not muzzled, called her back in, and then she just took a nap or hung out happy as a clam.  From that day, I decided the grazing muzzle just wasn't going to work for Rosie and I would just limit her grazing time instead. 

Since Pony Paddock (PP) has a little bit of grass (more like stubble--but mini's are so good at getting every last little stubble), Rosie and Jerry are already used to eating some grass.  Going out to PPA is not a huge shock to their systems.  I said before that I do like my horses getting some grass.  I decided to leave them on PPA for 1 to 1 1/2 hours per day max.  That's been working out well.  They graze for a while, and they come in when I call them with a rattle of the grain scoop.  They are calm and satisfied with that grazing time.  So far no noticeable weight gain or problems handling that much grass, but I'll adjust the time if needed.  Again, plans CAN (and maybe SHOULD) change.

Rosie says she's much happier and calmer not wearing her "starvation torture device":

 

 

Now Babe, on the other hand, doesn't get upset about wearing her grazing muzzle.  She's not pleased about it, but she's not upset or stressed.  She will continue to wear hers when she is out of her small "diet" pasture.  I can leave her in the bigger and grassier section of the pasture for a few hours and not worry.  She wanders around picking the tastiest grasses here and there.  It works for her.  Here she is grazing contentedly:

And, another picture of Babe an hour later still happily grazing with her muzzle:

 

Another, less important, plan change involves my manure cart.  I use a large yard cart for picking the manure out of PP.  In an attempt to keep things easy, I decided to leave it in Babe's pasture near PP (but not IN PP--Rosie's curiosity would wreck it and she'd probably hurt herself) covered with a tarp weighted down by bricks.  Well, that lasted one night.  This is what I came out to this morning:

 

 

 

I guess it doesn't want to be covered, you think??  So, I'll put it back in the shed, which is a little farther for me to pull it to PP when it's time to clean.  But it will work out OK.  Plans change, right?

 

Ever since Michaela worked her magic removing that big pile of old hay that was in PP, I just smile every time I look at it--I know I'm weird, but it doesn't take much to make me happy. 

 

Before:

 

And, after:

Now, doesn't that make you smile too?  :-) :-) :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rosie, the drama queen in every way

Vaccination day was Monday, May 9.  Babe and Jerry were very well behaved, as usual.  Rosie is a drama queen in every way--even physically.  She has absolutely NO pain tolerance and pretty much exploded when the needles were put in.  I felt horrible because she kept looking at me like "Why are you letting them do this to me??!!!"  But, she got through it and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Her reaction really didn't surprise me because she freaked out last year, partly from fear and partly from "needles hurt!"


Babe and Jerry didn't have any physical reaction to vaccinations.  But Rosie had a reaction to the 3-way combo with West Nile.  By the next morning, she had a bump on her neck where the combo was given and a very sore neck.  Actually, her whole body looked stiff and sore.  She hung her head and looked so sad.  She was very reluctant to move and took very short steps with the leg on the vaccination side, almost dragging it along as she walked at a snails pace. 


This little one is my baby, my "golden ray of sunshine" girl, and my horsie soul mate.  As much as we are told we shouldn't play favorites with our "children," I admit she is mine.  I love this little horse like crazy.  It was awful watching her struggle.  I contacted my vet and started her on 1/4 gram of flavored bute powder that I already had for Babe's arthritis twice a day.  Luckily, my little princess still had a voracious appetite and didn't even blink at the addition of the bute to her mini-sized portion of grain, which Babe will tell you smells nice and fruity but still tastes a little nasty. 


The bute helped some but she was still very uncomfortable.  Rosie was especially needy and cuddly during this time--very much like a sick child.  I pulled up a chair in her paddock and sat with her for an hour or more at a time.  I gave her lots of scratches and massage, as well as holding her head and telling her everything would be OK.  This may sound a little crazy, but she's quite different than the average horse about things like this--she LOVES having her head held and cuddled.  Even when she was still overcoming her fear of me when I first brought her home, she loved having her head held.  She found it comforting.  This quality of hers is especially endearing.


I kept in close contact with my vet and also discussed it with friends.  Along with the wonderful support from friends that I appreciated so much, I also heard about horror stories of the minority of vaccination reactions that resulted in death or serious illness.  There were a lot of mini owners telling me their minis experienced similar reactions like Rosie was having and it passed within a few days to a week.  Being so emotionally invested, I couldn't help but worry that Rosie would be one of the horror stories.  It took everything I had to control those worries and tell myself over and over that she would get better and everything would be fine. 


Interestingly, my vet told me that she had discovered other clinicians reporting the same reaction from vaccine from the same lot in four other horses that week.  They have informed the manufacturer.  I doubt I'll ever know if there was something wrong with the batch.  I guess it doesn't really matter.


I finally saw real improvement last evening, Thursday, May 12.  She was moving more freely--pretty much normally.  She still didn't move her head side to side much but she was raising it higher than she had been and looked comfortable grazing, raising her head to look at something, and then lowering it again to continue grazing.  The swelling had gone down.  She was much brighter looking.  I felt so much better.


This morning (Friday, May 13), she is about 90% back to normal.  Still not wanting to move her head side to side very much, still not quite as cocky and as bossy with Jerry as she usually is ... but definitely headed in the right direction.  The bump on her neck is now a small hard knot about the size of a dime.  I am finally breathing regular breaths and believing she will be OK with no lasting effects. 


I talked with my vet and we will work on a plan for next year--maybe splitting up the vaccines on different days?  Maybe pre-medicating her?  Something, anything, to try to prevent this from happening again.  Even if the vaccine lot did have a problem and next years batch is perfectly fine, minis do seem to be more prone to vaccine reactions than big horses, and I want to do whatever possible to prevent it from happening again.

UPDATE evening 5/13: 

Rosie has had a minor set back. She is still acting pretty well and bright eyed, but the bump on her neck at the injection site is larger this evening and she didn't want me to mess with it. I called the on-call vet who said "Oh, we've been talking about Rosie a lot this week, so I'm familiar with her case." We talked some more about the larger bump and decided to put her on an antibiotic and give her Banamine for a couple more days. Met him between his other farm visits earlier this evening and picked up the medicine. Rosie ate everything in some grain--it helps to have a piggy pony! I'm hoping things will be back to absolute normal in a few more days and we can put all this behind us. Stressful!!

Will the hair ever end????

One thing I have learned about minis is they get a LOT of winter hair and shedding season goes on and on ... and on.  It also varies in degree from mini to mini.  I remember my big horses having a moderate winter coat and just quietly shedding with a little grooming here and there, and before I knew it they were slick and shiny without all that much effort from me.  Babe, who is still here, is like that.  But with the minis, it's like the invasion of little yaks and it's curry, curry, curry ... and then curry some more.  And, they are STILL hairy!!

Here are some tools I use in my fight against the fur:

Left to right:  mane/tail comb.  I love this one because it is easy to grip and does a great job going through thick tails.  I use a silicone based detangler as needed.  I've heard about it drying out horse's hair, but I haven't experienced that myself.  This stuff makes manes/tails easier to comb without ripping the hair.  It also repels dirt in between treatments.  I just bought a Sleek EZ yesterday (5" size).  This works great on Jerry (AKA Hairy Jerry!).  I didn't like it as much for Rosie, and she didn't seem to like it much either.  I find it more tiring to grip, but some of that could be my grip strength is still not 100% from the nerve damage affecting my hands from my cervical spine problem still healing after surgery.  I didn't try the Sleek EZ on Babe because I was worn out by the time I got done with the minis and just ran a quick metal curry over her--Sorry Babe, you'll get the royal treatment tomorrow.  The little pink brush with black bristles is a face brush.  I never used a little brush until I got the minis--their faces are so small, I have to use a small brush so I don't take out an eye with a swipe from a regular sized brush.  The yellow tool is my Furminator knock-off.  I LOVE this.  This works the best on Rosie, who has soft hair and she seems to like the feel of it better than the Sleek EZ.  The old reliable round metal curry comb with the handle works pretty well for everyone, especially on dried mud and I find it the easiest one to use while I'm healing from my neck surgery.  I don't think it removes the amount of hair that the Furminator and the Sleek EZ do though.  And, last but not least, a good body type brush for giving them a final brushing to make them a little sleeker.

Jerry walks around looking like either he is ready to go out dancing ... or, he's homeless and lives in a ditch.  Not really any in between for Jerry. 

Jerry as the "homeless hobo":

And Jerry after his beauty treatment:

Big difference, huh?!  And, in case you want to see the full extent of the Jerry hair removed today, mostly by the Sleek EZ with a little help from the metal curry.  It's like a pony died there!

There was plenty left that wanted to come off his body if my body would have held up. 

Rosie was locked in her stall while I was grooming Jerry because she will never leave us alone.  She was extra quiet and I peeked in to see her lying down sleeping.  It was really cute.  She got up when I told her she looked cute and then it was her turn for grooming.

Rosie looks pretty much the same all the time.  Usually clean and pretty despite whatever yuck the weather man throws our way.  As I said before, she is a true Princess! 

Here is her before grooming pic:

And here is her after grooming pic.  A little sleeker, a little neater, but really not much difference.

I think grooming took 30 pounds off her!  I wonder if the Furminator will do that for me??

I love grooming the minis much more than I ever liked grooming the big horses.  For one thing, it goes faster.  I can do two minis in the time it takes to do one side of a big horse.  The minis also seem to LOVE grooming.  Sometimes I bring a chair out and sit with Rosie just loose in the paddock and she will practically climb on my lap to get just the right places scrubbed and scratched by the combs and brushes.  Jerry just plain appreciates grooming.  I can see him saying "Thank you Mom" while I'm doing it, and when I halter and tie him for grooming, which seems to make him feel safer, I think it's one of the few times he forgets he's a nervous little guy who worries too much.  It's a great way to bond with my little friends.

No horse owner is an island

When you have horses of any size, you need to have back up so you can get away or have someone to care for them when you are physically unable to do so--illness, injury, or surgical recovery.  I never thought much about this until my body decided to start breaking down a few years ago.  I don't go away much--homebody deluxe--but I have had a too-long series of orthopedic surgical procedures over the past few years that have made me unable to care for my horses for various lengths of time.  I have no horse knowledgeable family to help out.  Mike lives too far away to be able to do day to day visits.  My neighbors are great, but they aren't in a position to be able to do the full range of horse care and farm babysitting.  I've hired a professional pet sitter for a couple of short vacations, which worked out well but was very expensive.  Anyone doing this professionally has to understandably charge enough to make it worth their while. 

When I was preparing for my first hip replacement in January of 2012, I knew I would be out of commission and unable to even walk out to the barn to see the horses for at least a few weeks.  It was an easy winter that year but still winter in NY, with ice and snow that caused dangerous footing for someone depending on a walker or cane to even walk from room to room.  I needed reliable horse care for a long period of time.  I was freaking out because I couldn't find anyone for a reasonable price that I could afford for that length of time, and then I remembered someone ... a woman with whom I grew up and was in 4-H, Lisa, had a couple of teenage daughters who did odd jobs to earn spending money.  These kids were raised on a small farm, had horses and a variety of other animals, and were known for being responsible and hard working. 

I called and soon had 12-year-old Michaela and mom, Lisa, scheduled to help me out.  I was in a pinch financially at that time, and they were SO great to accept whatever I could pay.  Michaela was the official caregiver; Lisa provided her transportation and just kept an eye on things, helping Michaela here and there, although Lisa has told me that Michaela ran the show and had a better memory and handle on what needed to be done than she did.  They visited twice a day and not only took great care of the horses and played with my dogs who fell in love with them, but also ran some errands for me picking up things from the store and even a bag of grain, which Michaela insisted on carrying the 200+ feet to my barn.  Talk about industrious!!

Since that time, I have depended on Michaela for help on numerous occasions:  caring for the horses after my surgeries, doing heavier chores that I have trouble with, assisting with the horses when Mac had to go to Cornell Vet Hospital last year ... the list goes on and on.  Fortunately, I've been able to give her a raise in pay from the first round of post-op horse care back in 2012.  I hope that money has helped her out.  We don't have any set pay system; she just happily accepts whatever I pay her.  When we made the Cornell trip last summer with Mac and Babe where Mac was euthanized, she felt bad for Mike and me and tried to refuse to take any money at all, even though she had spent the entire day working and being an integral part of the Let's-Get-Blind-Mac-to-Cornell team.  I insisted and she finally accepted it.  That's the kind of young person she is. 

When I need Michaela's help whether it's cleaning up manure or feeding horses, I facebook message her and she always responds:  "Sure!  I'm happy to help you out!"  When she arrives, she works hard and I know things will be done right.  She handles my horses with confidence, kindness, and respect.  I especially appreciate how well she deals with young Rosie, who can be moody and--OK, I admit it--bratty at times.  She's got Rosie all figured out--Rosie is a drama queen; responding with drama back doesn't work because Rosie can "out drama" anyone.  Rosie may approach Michaela with a snotty look on her face, but within less than a minute Michaela has softened Rosie's bratty look and she is just happy as can be.

Today I needed Michaela's help once again.  She arrived with pitchfork in hand, ready to literally dig in and remove the large pile of now wet and half rotted straw-like hay left over from what the minis didn't eat over the winter.  Mike had raked it all into a huge pile a couple of weeks ago but that was as far as it got. 

We had a great system--I drove the lawn mower/tractor with a large yard cart; Michaela forked the hay into the cart; I drove it out to the far end of the pasture and released the dump mechanism on the cart; and drove the empty cart back to Michaela ... rinse and repeat ... a bunch of times.  Two hours later it was done.  Mike will go down and smooth out the piles of hay on the weekend and it should fill in some low spots in the pasture and compost into the ground over time. 

Michaela is a personable 16-year-old with a variety of interests and life plans.  I had a great time chatting with her while we worked (or I should say-- as *she* worked ... and *I* watched).  As the years tick by since meeting Michaela, I become more and more aware that I may not have her smiling face and strong arms helping out much longer.  She will move on to bigger and better things that life has in store for this industrious, intelligent, and wonderful young lady.

We all need to be on the lookout for our Michaela and when you find them, treat them like gold.  They are not the "hired hand"--they are the wonderful assistant and helper enabling you to go on vacations or keep your horses at home despite an aging body that breaks here and there and/or doesn't want to do the hard physical labor like it used to.  Don't ever isolate yourself and your farm so you don't have anyone for horse care and farm help if you are in a position where you are unable to do it--and you never know when that will happen. 

Yet, be careful and choosy when you look for your Michaela--I recently heard of a couple who returned from a weekend away to find their three horses practically starving and all the feed and stalls looking the same as when they left.  The horses had just been left out on their eaten-down late-fall pasture.  Their hired caregiver did not feed the horses even one flake of hay, despite making at least one visit to the farm to pick up the money they left out for her!  You can be sure that woman will never be trusted at that farm ever again.  You need someone who is confident and knows horses--knows how to handle themselves around the horses and knows if something is not quite right and a horse that may need vet attention.  You need someone who is not afraid to get their hands dirty and work hard, because horses ARE hard work, even minis.  You need someone who can be trusted to do the job right, not because you are checking up on them, but because they are a person of integrity. 

If you don't have a Michaela, I suggest you start looking and putting them into place today.  No horse owner is an island, and no horse owner can stand alone all the time.

Mini horse physical therapy

I had a two-level cervical spine discectomy and fusion March 31.  I'm now at the point where my surgeon is telling me to do more things to increase my upper body strength without lifting anything other than small objects.  I could go to physical therapy--I have a great therapist I've worked with for several years.  I think they've named a wing after me at that office, as well as at my ortho surgeons' office.  I've been a frequent flyer.  I was going to physical therapy sessions for the neck before I had the surgery.  I'm just tired of it, and I have to admit--I'm cheap and don't want to pay the insurance co-pays. 

I was thinking about what I could do other than boring exercises--something that would use my arms for reaching and stretching, improve my grip strength, yet keep my body in good alignment.  Answer:  Horse grooming!  I have to admit another thing--I am not a "regular" horse groomer.  I always groom before tacking up (and after), before some pictures, and sometimes if we are having visitors.  And, another admission--I favor Rosie and groom her more than anyone else.  OK--I've said it--I have a herd favorite.  Bad mom, Bad mom! 

My typical grooming regimen was to occasionally run a Furminator knock-off or a brush over her, pick her feet quickly, and maybe comb her mane and tail every once in a while.  The other horses received similar treatment, but not as often.  Don't get me wrong--I check them visually and run my hands over them every day for to check for cuts, skin problems, hoof problems, etc.  And, if they have an actual problem that needs treatment, I'm on it like white on rice.  Buuuuutttt ... if everything is looking OK, I don't do very much day to day grooming.  Until just a few days ago, they hadn't been groomed at all since my surgery. 

So I gathered a few tools and tried out various ones.  Rubber curry--umm ... that takes a little TOO much strength and actually hurts.  Plastic curry with the stick-up tooth-pick things--easy to use, but it didn't get much hair and dirt off.  Furminator--easy to use and takes off hair like crazy but clogs and not good for getting dried mud off.  Digging through my vast grooming tool arsenal (you would think I groom all the time with the collection of tools I have), I found the old style round metal curry comb with a handle--Hmmmm ... Glides easily over the coat removing both hair and dirt with very little pressure.  I think we have a winner! 

I didn't halter or tie anyone--let's keep this simple.  I had to start with Rosie because, well, she is always *there*.  Finished with her in record time because her hair rarely holds onto dirt.  Don't know what it is about it, but she is never one of those mud encrusted horses.  She is a true Princess!  I concentrated on slow, gentle strokes, reaching in all directions and switching hands so I was using both arms 50/50.  I am very right handed and I tend to use it for everything, but this is physical therapy time--let's do it correctly. 

Then on to Jerry.  Rosie is very possessive of my attention.  She would not leave us alone and kept chasing Jerry away, returning to me for more.  OK Rose, I have to get rid of you--in the barn you go.  A treat in her bucket and a closed stall door and I was back to a much more relaxed Jerry--"She's mean, Mom!"  My horses are rarely stalled so I was very proud of Rosie that she quietly waited in her stall while I groomed Jerry.  Unfortunately, my stall doors are too tall for the little ones to see out, which makes her patience even more impressive.  Jerry was a little more of a challenge.  He gets nervous at what he perceives as a fast movement, things my other horses don't even blink an eye at.  I probably should have haltered and tied him because he kept skittering a few steps away here and there.  Jerry has a LOT of winter hair yet to come out, as well.  More work than Rosie, but I was still doing OK and got the job done.

Hmmm ... I'm still feeling pretty good.  I'll tackle Babe.  She was out in the pasture a little ways and she didn't think she had the strength to walk down to the barn.  Out I go.  She wasn't very dirty and doesn't have as much winter hair left, BUT her body is SO BIG!!!   OMG!  Grooming one side of her body took much more effort than both minis put together, and that included dealing with Jerry's skittering.  I had to take several breaks while grooming Babe, and I was sweating and tired afterwards.  She made the minis seem like a cake walk.

I've been grooming them every day for a few days in a row and one shoulder is a little ouchy, but I'm holding up well.  I have also added manes and tails.  Rosie and Babe have similar thickness and hair textures of their tails--thick!  Of course, Rosie's is shorter.  Combing through Babe's tail feels like running a marathon and Rosie's feels like walking out to the mailbox.  OK--minis are SO much easier.

I will be returning to work end of next week and this is good preparation.  I work on the computer all day long, doing a LOT of medical records review that requires near constant mousing through documents, interspersed with typing.  My arms, neck, back, and shoulders became fatigued and sore even before my discs and arthritis became problematic.  Anyone who says doing this kind of job is easy--"All you do is sit there all day."--clearly hasn't done it for any period of time.  I really need to be stronger by the time I have to go back to work.  Thank you for your hair, horses!

I had another incident end of last week that also reinforced how much easier and safer minis are for me.  My farrier made a visit.  I thought I could handle things without having extra help--Babe is the queen of calm and typically stands like a statue.  The minis are well behaved as well.  This day went a little differently.  As he was almost finished, Babe happened to see something in back of her that spooked her.  All the sudden she flung her head around just missing my head by an inch, pushed her shoulder into me, and tried to turn around quickly.  Babe is a big, muscular, old style foundation quarter horse.  My balance isn't the greatest since I had some hip and leg tendons released a couple of years ago.  I found myself stumbling sideways and backwards, and ran right into his tool cart.  I remember saying "Mario, move your cart--I'm going to fall!" in a panic because falling so soon after spine surgery could damage it.  Cart got out of the way, I didn't fall, Babe calmed down once she could see whatever it was that spooked her.  That much horse moving quickly can shove a person like me to the ground in an instant.  A mini doing the same thing ... no big deal.  Granted, my fusion will become solid and stronger, but this was a further reminder about how the minis really are a more doable and safer choice for me now. 

The ongoing battle of the equine bulge

I have never had a thin horse here.  I've had a couple of scrawny horses come here and bulk up when other people had been pulling their hair out trying to keep weight on the same horses.  Hmmm ... calories in the air??  Maybe that would explain my own personal battle of the bulge??  Nah--unfortunately I can't blame it on that.  Jerry was a little thin when he arrived, even though he was being fed quite a bit.  Well, he didn't keep his slender figure for long here.  He started bulking up and just looked better, yet I was feeding him less grain than at his previous home and my hay was nothing to write home about (more on that below).  Rosie was a chubby little thing on arrival--her previous owners might not have touched her, but they did feed her--my guess is she was just out on a big pasture with a high lactating momma, or she would have been more comfortable with people around her instead of flying through the air with the greatest of ease when approached by us scary humans.  Babe is an eating machine--she could enter a grass eating contest and win, hooves down.  Rosie does appear to be a lot like Babe.  Sigh ... (I do that a lot)

My pasture is weedy, but the grass in it is very healthy and I think calorie dense.  Therefore, I have to limit it for the horses.  In the past, I haven't done this with Mac and Babe most years and they were like sausages on legs by July.  Some how I got away with it without their getting laminitis and founder, nor had any other horse I'd had on the same pasture.  Then, my world was rocked when I was given Lucky who came to me with severe insulin resistance that I was unaware of.  The only thing I was told was that she needed to have some limitation on the lush spring grass but the previous owner told me she had been turning her out on her rather weedy, yet grassy pasture all day long without a problem.  It was similar to my pasture, so I didn't think she would have an issue here.  Turned out *looking* at grass made Lucky sore.  She was sore within a couple of days of grazing here.  She couldn't even handle grazing with a muzzle for more than 1/2 hour a day.  I had to tape the hole of her grazing muzzle half way shut with Gorilla tape (that stuff sticks!!!) so I could let her out of her little "Pony Prison" tiny paddock jail I ended up having to leave her in for pretty much 23 hours a day.  With the hole taped half way shut, she could get only a few sprigs here and there.  I only did this for about an hour a day--it wouldn't have been OK for her GI system to go without food for a long time--this was just for some exercise, mingle with the horses, and get a change of scenery.  This and very low NSC hay kept the mean old laminitis wolf away.  Welcome to Super Laminitis World, Dorothy!   And, as Babe ages (21 next month) and now I have minis who don't need many calories, I realize my luck of keeping a laminitis-free herd (except for Lucky's extreme situation that I really don't count because even the vets thought she was a case of insulin resistance gone wild and way out of the norm of most minis) is bound to run out and I must be more cautious with their grazing. 

I'm not Anti-Grass.  In fact, I would say I'm definitely Pro-Grass, if there is such a thing.  I believe grass has benefits that hay just can't offer.  It's high in protein that growing Rosie and older, let's-keep-the-muscle-mass Babe need.  The only other way to cover their protein requirement is with a super high protein soy based ration balancer or high calorie alfalfa, neither option I like as much as fresh grass from my free non-GMO pasture.  Soy can also mess with some mare's hormones--trust me, Rosie has attitude enough without messing with her hormones, lol.  I did feed Purina Enrich Plus to everyone during the winter because that was the only high protein, lower calorie option.  We had a wet early hay season and 1st cutting was late cut here in my area and 2nd cutting was few and far between because they just ran out of time to get another cutting.  I didn't have it tested, but I think it was a safe bet that it was low protein.  Growing Rosie needs nutrients, but not a lot of calories.  Grass has a lot of nutrition and also a high moisture content--a vet told me once that he had never seen a horse on grass get an impaction colic.  Grass also has high quality natural vitamin E, of which so many horses are deficient.  It's FREE; hay costs money.  And, I just plain love the way horses look when they are getting fresh pasture grass.  They look so healthy and just glow from nose to tail.  Since the grass started growing a little bit ago, I've taken them off the ration balancer and they get only a smidgen of regular textured grain as a carrier for their supplements--Rosie gets a basic vitamin/mineral, raspberry leaves (her heat cycles that started last summer were pretty hard--hoping to help level that out with the raspberry leaves this year), and Remission.  Jerry gets vit/min and Remission, and Babe gets vit/min, a joint supplement, Remission, Focus HF (her hoof quality took a nose dive over the winter), and occasional flavored bute powder for her arthritis. 
 
I have a total of 3 1/2 acres fenced pasture with a basic electric perimeter fence.  Inside, I have dividing fences, some permanent, some temporary tape with step-in posts.  I have "Pony Paddock" attached to one end of my barn with run-in stalls for the minis--I'd say it's about a 1/2 acre permanently fenced semi-dry lot with a little grass stubble, but not enough for much actual "food" grazing.  I had a lot of excavation and gravel work done there about 10 years ago and the grass that's grown up is no where near as dense as dirt pasture grass is.  It's fenced with pony proof welded wire with an electric wire at butt scratching height--ask Rosie why I had to add that particular wire.  She practically ruined the fence in places where she just HAD to itch her butt, even though I installed a Rosie-body-sized nubby scratching pad for her big butt on the side of the barn when I noticed she had no tolerance for itches as she was beginning to shed last spring.  And, she didn't even feel guilty for messing up the fence!  BTW, That girl has a drafty kind of build and is SO strong.  I can't wait to see how she pulls a cart.  I bet she will be able to tackle our hilly terrain better than a lot of minis her height.  Last spring/summer/fall, I fed quite a bit of hay to the minis and they ate very little grass.  I decided to try something new this year--I tape fenced a paddock extension (probably around 1/3 acre) off the back of Pony Paddock called "Pony Paddock Annex" with a gate where Rosie and Jerry can go for limited grazing each day when I choose. 

Babe's primary pasture is about one acre, attached to Pony Paddock on one side and a temporary tape strand on the other, separating her from the remaining pasture at which she is currently gazing longingly as the grass is starting to grow green and sweet in Upstate NY.  This is just about enough to meet her nutritional needs without much additional hay during the spring and summer, but not so much that she will blimp out--I hope. 

Here's a picture of Babe I took today in her pasture next to Pony Paddock Annex.  I'd like her to lose a little more weight and I'm only feeding her a little bit of supplemental hay now on rainy days when I know she will be standing inside her stall a lot--she doesn't like getting wet.  If necessary, I'll move the temporary tape strand on the other side of her pasture in a bit to make it smaller.

Everything is subject to change depending on the grass growth and their body condition fluctuations.  I'm really going to try hard to keep them all leaner this grazing season, which is very difficult since NO ONE does any work to burn calories!  Although that may change for Jerry if it turns out he is a good little driver.  I might even be able to pony Rosie along behind the cart for exercise if Jerry is solid ... at least in the fenced pasture.  Just have to see how things go.  I've been around horses long enough to know all plans need to be flexible and everything is subject to change.

I have a few tools in my Prevent-a-Blimp (or in Rosie's and Babe's case Trim-a-Blimp!) arsenal.  Babe has a weird tooth alignment issue where she scraped her teeth on a salt block so much that her front incisors no longer meet--I do only loose salt in buckets now.  She can graze just fine, but she has to use the teeth more on the sides, rather than right in front.  She can't graze AT ALL with a regular hole-in-the-middle grazing muzzle.  I did some research and found this cool grazing muzzle called Greenguard that accommodates her problem

It has a series of slats on the sides for better ventilation and the same pattern on the bottom.  She can tilt her head just a bit and graze with this muzzle.  Now that the grass is growing more, she will have to wear this any time she leaves her small pasture to graze in the remaining larger area (I like her to get out and walk around more than she does in just the one acre).  It doesn't look like it would restrict her grazing that much, but it really does.  Definitely more restrictive than when I tried to make her old Best Friends muzzle work by cutting longer oval shaped hole.  That hardly slowed her down.

Rosie ... poor Rosie.  She is a chubby little one and I'm having to monitor her grazing like a hawk.  She mows grass like a Cub Cadet, a Toro, or whatever lawn mower is in your neck of the woods.  The grass in Pony Paddock Annex (PPA) is now at the point where it's juuuusst tall enough for her to consume it way too fast without a muzzle, even for short periods of time.  I introduced her to a muzzle a few days ago.  She was not pleased!  I swear she was swearing at me!  We practiced on the taller, thicker lawn grass and I helped her figure out how she could wiggle the basket to get grass to poke up.  She's young and patience is not her strong suit right now, but after a few mini pony tantrums and lots of encouragement she got the idea and started getting some grass here and there.  Today was the first day of the muzzle in PPA.  She started to do the tantrum thing (paw the ground, try to rub it off, and silently yelling "I'm mad!!") but she soon did the smart-pony-Rosie thing and redirected her energy to scouting out the grassier areas where she could graze more easily.  Most of PPA has short, rather sparse grass except for two areas where the big horses generously fertilized it through the years it was part of their pasture and it's probably 10 times as thick and tall as the rest of PPA.  She gravitated towards those areas and seemed pretty happy for the hour she was out there.  They have already been doing daily light grazing in PPA as the grass has been popping up--as you can see by the trees, it's still very early spring here and not much growing yet.

Here is the little darling at the point where she wasn't swearing at me.  "I still love you, mom ... but just a little."

Chubby, but some of the full figure is winter hair, I promise!

"Don't bother me, mom, I'm busy trying to eat through this starvation torture device you put on me."

Jerry was the lucky one and I didn't make him wear a muzzle because he doesn't graze like a lawn mower out of control like Rosie does ... but his time is coming as the grass grows more.  Where he is grazing is what my entire pasture is like now--short grass just starting to grow.

In the barn, I have hay nets with the Tough-1 rack/frame things that make it very easy to fill.  I found stuffing and tying up hay nets every day was making my back and neck hurt.  The frames are ideal.  I had to swap out the net that came with them with my smaller 1" hole super-slow-feed hay net that Big D (www.bigdweb.com) sells for only $13.99 for a large size.  If you can trust your mini to free feed with this type of tiny hole net, you can easily stuff in enough hay to last for several days.   I have them mounted high enough so the minis can't even come close to getting their heads in the opening to chow down, so I don't have to close them up at the top--makes things even easier.  Drop in some hay and go.

One thing I've learned about minis is they do not eat any hay that is not fine, which is probably a good thing because I can't imagine that their teeth would be able to grind up coarse hay very well and that would create GI problems.  As I said, our hay was late cut and was a mix of fine undergrowth and coarser older stems.  Babe ate pretty much everything, but Rosie and Jerry wasted a lot.  Here is the pile of hay that was scattered over PP (Pony Paddock) after winter that Mike raked up.  It was even taller until last nights rain flattened it.  My wonderful, marvelous, super helpful teenager horse/farm helper assistant, Michaela, is going to help me remove this stuff later in the week.  I can't shovel/fork because of my recent neck spine surgery--she will do that.  Then, I'll tow the lawn dump cart behind the riding mower down to the far end of the pasture where she will spread it out.  I think it will just kind of compost into the ground over time.  Remind me in the fall not to feed the minis' winter hay outside unless it's fine and they will eat it all.  Jerry prefers to eat outside, so I indulged him last winter.  Jerry--suck it up--you are eating in next winter!

This is my barn with the paddock divider for the big horses (well, only Babe now) and the ponies.  The ponies are on the left and the big black pad hanging on the outside wall between the stall doors is the scratching pad I bought and put up so dear sweet Rosie would have a good place to itch her entire body, rather than on the fence.  She uses it occasionally--at least there are a few hairs on it.  Sigh ...

And, what young pony doesn't need a toy collection?  She has two Jolly balls that I paid hard-earned money for, but her favorite toys are the yellow supplement bucket, plastic milk jugs (they are such fun to stomp on and smash), and a supplement container with a couple of stones in it with a tight screw-on lid.  She also has a large inflatable ball, but I don't leave it out.

So, here we go with 2016 Battle of the Equine Bulge! 




 

Now, you need to read some good stuff!

When I made the decision to have little Lucky put down, I knew I needed an equine friend for Rosie, and fast--she wasn't even a year old and would likely have a hard time being by herself even for a short time.  Horse rescuer Barb, who rescued Rosie from the auction, had another mini she rescued at the same time but from a different farm.  I had met him when visiting Rose.  He was a middle aged, easy-to-live-with type of guy--maybe I could borrow him??  Barb said yes and she brought him the next evening--Thank you Barb!  Rosie did have to go 24 hours alone, although my big horses were in an adjoining pasture and had run-in-stalls on the other end of my shedrow barn. 

Rosie felt confused and lonely for a couple of hours after Lucky was put down, but nothing major.  I sat in the stall with her during that time.  She's has a non-herdbound type of personality and prefers to hang out with her human than a horse.  This helped her adjust to Lucky's sudden absence.  Rosie had become my baby, and seriously, I would have stayed out in the barn with her all night if she had been upset ... well, except for the strong probability of hypothermia--our winter in upstate New York was still pretty cold.  Fortunately, I didn't have to test my ability to be on the cast of Survivor that night because she calmed down pretty quickly ... still a little confused when I left her, but calm and quiet. 

Next evening "Jerry" arrived.  Rosie had lived with him briefly after their auction rescue.  Jerry was true to his "I just want things to be peaceful and calm" good boy personality and blended right in with his much more dominant and "in your face" (and HIS face) little sister Rosie. 

Here's Jerry:

Handsome guy, huh?!  Jerry is in his mid-to-late teens, supposedly trained to drive (pull a cart, not drive a car--for my non-horse-familiar friends reading this, lol), gentle, complete boy scout mentality--"I want to do only good and never cause any trouble.  How may I serve you?"  He's a 36" mini gelding.  A good boy, for sure.  BUT, he has a couple of issues (but don't they all have something to work through?)--He is skittish of things people do.  Carrying a pitchfork in your hand and want to stop and pet him?  No way--he is out of there so fast--"She will beat me, I just know it!"  Even carrying a bucket scrub brush that has an 8" handle will send him scurrying away.  It took him a month to get used to my carrying a water bucket past him without a spook.  My immediate thought was that he had been beaten, and beaten bad, at some point in his life.  But the more time I'm around him, the more I am starting to believe that he has just such a sensitive personality with such a huge will to do the "right" thing that I bit of rough handling, yet maybe not to the point of being beaten, may have been all it took to make him so skittish.  Once he's haltered and on a lead, he is near perfect.  Still worrisome to a degree, but that seems to give him some comfort. 

Jerry craves quiet attention and loves to be cooed to and petted like you would a dog.  He's blind in his right eye, and I think that also makes him feel more vulnerable.  Mac was a trusting blind horse, and nothing I did ever bothered him as long as I spoke to him so he knew I was there.  Jerry isn't as trusting and feels the need to watch out for himself a lot more.  The human skittishness does get old after a while, I must admit, and I often tell him--"Jerry, has one bad thing happened to you since you arrived a year ago??  NO!  PLEASE start trusting me more!   PUULLLLEEEEEEEASE"  He does get better when I spend a block of time with him, but next day he may have reverted back to being skittish about the same stuff again.  Sigh ...  I've never known a horse that spends so much energy worrying about getting into trouble, yet does NOTHING that would ever get him into that trouble he focuses so much on avoiding.  He's very sweet, though, and is a good friend to Rosie.  I am planning to start working with him with the harness and cart and see how that goes.  Since he tends to be less skittish when haltered, I'm wondering if he will actually feel better with a harness on.  I've ground driven him with just a halter and two lead ropes and he did seem to know what he was doing.  Oh, and he is no longer just "on loan"--Mike and I officially purchased him last fall.  When I told my vet he was a permanent member of the family now, she just smiled and said "Was there ever any doubt that would happen?"

Now, to the star of the show (and my world!)--ROSIE!  That little pony girl has grown from a scared, freaked out, unhandled 5 month old crazy filly to a confident long yearling (can't believe she will be 2 in June!) who has surpassed all my hopes and dreams for her so far.  Once she decided to trust me, she REALLY decided to trust me.  We do a lot of things.  She does all the typical things any good yearling should do--stand for grooming, feet, farrier, load in the trailer, lead, tie.  She's been "sacked out" with everything imaginable--noisy plastic shavings bag flying at her body?  Yawn .... "I'll just try to tear it apart once it's on the ground within my reach--that will be fun."  I take her for walks in the neighborhood and she is getting used to traffic--and I do mean TRAFFIC--large tractor trailers, motorcycles, banging metal trailers towed by pick up trucks, in addition to normal cars and small trucks.  I live in a small village on a very busy 2 lane state highway.  We go on the side streets and look for things to use for despooking and desensitizing my future driving pony.  It's amazing what you can find in a church parking lot--handicap access ramp, metal garbage cans to drag around on pavement (that will wake the neighbors!), and then I put the can on her back and bang on it.  We walk under a carport-type overhang where it's darker underneath.  A small cement porch with a couple of steps serves as a platform type of thing that we've used for learning how to move just one foot at a time up and down steps and maneuvering in tight places without panicking.  I've found tree stumps and taught her to stand and balance on all fours.  At home, we have balloons, hula hoops, milk jugs on a rope, bouncing balls next to and shooting them under her, weaving all kinds of things under her belly and through/around her legs.  She has taken everything in relative stride and accepted it all with very little trouble.  Here are a few pictures of poor Rosie being tortured by me last year (remember she was just barely a yearling at the time--and wild and crazy just a few months earlier):

 

 

 

And, probably my favorite photo of all--I had the tarp over her entire body, including her head, and pulled it back from her face for the picture, saying to her "Where did Rosie go?" (I get pretty silly with her--I LOVE this little pony!!!!)  I love the look on her face--"What crazy thing is Mom doing to me now?????"

She definitely trusts me and it has been such a pleasure to work with her through this process. 

As far as "skill" training:  Rosie knows how to lunge both directions at walk only (saving those precious young legs from strain on tight circles); she can do a great turn on the forehand, decent turn on the haunches (still perfecting that one), great back up from voice command or hand motion only, whoa voice command, side pass both directions.  She is light as a feather on lead--she's easier to handle than my 45 pound dogs.

I would say the biggest hole in her training is getting her out around chaos involving other horses and crowds of people.  That's her weak spot, and I wonder if it is a left over PTSD kind of thing from her auction experience at such a vulnerable age and time in her life--never being handled and then suddenly taken from her mom, herded into a trailer, dumped at and run around a crazy auction environment.  I'm currently healing from a two-level cervical spine discectomy and fusion, but as soon as that is deemed stable and strong, I will be getting her out and away from home more to get exposure to this kind of stuff.  Working with a youngster is an evolving process where we are both constantly learning about each other and she is learning more about the big world out there that she never even knew existed.  She is a joy to work with, and I can say without reservation that I have never had a bond with a horse like the one I have with Rosie.  She is my "heart horse" and will likely be my "Horse of a Lifetime."

This is my favorite head shot of Rosie.  (The red thing on top of her head is a toy ball in the distance--photo-shopper, I am not).  The picture really shows off her beauty and always makes me wonder how someone could have thrown away a little pony so gorgeous!

 

I'm BBBAAAAAACCCCKKKK!!

I've been very neglectful with my blog, and I apologize for that.  I started, did two posts, and then never to be heard from again ... until now!  I'm BAAAACCKKK!

A lot has happened since my last post in December 2014, which is to be expected.  I'll get the sad news out of the way first.

Dear sweet mini mare Lucky had to be euthanized early Spring 2015 after a battle with laminitis and founder.  She had been susceptible to diet related laminitis ever since she arrived here May 2014, but I had that pretty well figured out so she stopped getting these episodes.  I didn't know the whole story about her health when I brought her home ... if you get my drift.  I had to find out about it the hard way.

But what ended up being her down fall was not too many apples, too much grass, high NSC hay ... but an odd situation where she had ice ball build up in her hooves so severely it was like she was walking on rocks until I arrived home from work for the evening feeding. She could hardly stand!!   I managed to chop it out, but she was so lame she lay down immediately.  I gave her some Banamine and hoped she would be fine--I had never heard of lasting effects from something like this.  I consulted the vet and she thought Lucky would rest up for a few days on a soft bed and be good as new.  Well, she never got much better.  She had a couple of good days here and there, but for the most part she was lame in varying degrees from that day on.  My vet diagnosed it as a "road founder" type of condition and I tried everything--padding her feet and wrapping with tape (tape wouldn't stick in the freezing cold we were having in January in Upstate NY), put socks on her legs in case the cold was affecting her nerves and making things worse, daily Banamine (bute and Previcoxx didn't work as well), every laminitis-related supplement I could find, cold laser treatments, bloodwork for Cushings, re-tested my hay to make sure it wasn't too high in NSC for her because she had previously gotten laminitic on hay that tested 9.8, which is usually in the safe range for even insulin resistant horses--but not low enough for Lucky.  The hay I was feeding her tested at a super low 4.5--well, problem wasn't diet.  We tried to keep her comfortable, hoping the acute stage would end and she would go back to her baseline of relative soundness as long as she was kept on super low NSC hay and no grass.  Her x-rays showed some coffin bone rotation, but not horrible.  Nothing worked.  Although she was never down and in severe pain as she was the night of the ice-ball assault, she was never comfortable or even close to sound.  After about two months of treatment, I made the difficult decision to euthanize her.

It was a very sad day here at that farm.  I wanted her last day to be a happy day and as pain free as possible.  I loaded her up with Banamine--I gave her at least triple her daily dose and I could tell she really felt better.   My neighbor has a backhoe.  He came and dug a grave.  The vet arrived, I led Lucky to the grave where she was quietly laid to rest.  I cried, the vet cried, the vet students cried.  My perfect little pony was gone.

I'll get the other bad thing out of the way.  July 2015, Mac (the cute roan looking appaloosa on my earlier posts) had a chronic hoof toe crack that had been going on for at least a year.  I was concerned about it, but my farrier wasn't--when I asked him about it, he would just brush it off as no big deal and that I was an over-protective horse parent type of response.  Since he had good credentials and a good reputation, I trusted him.  After all Mac had always had been prone to a degree of hoof cracking, he was probably OK and this one would grow out if I just gave it more time, right?  Wrong!  I let it go too long before asking for a second opinion from another farrier.

Second farrier, Mario, picked up the hoof, did a little "cleaning up", called me back with "Umm ... Dorothy, I want to show you something."  He proceeded to tell me Mac had a severe fungal infection under the wall extending all the way up to the coronary band, even though the wall looked intact to a lay person except for the widening crack at the bottom 1/4 of the wall at the toe.  Other than the crack, it looked like a pretty normal hoof--How could this be???? How did I miss this????  These kinds of things happened to neglected horses--Mac had never gone for more than 7 or 8 weeks between trims, usually 6 weeks.  He had me feel a bulging on the outside of the hoof wall, which was an indication of the infection under the wall.  Mario did what he could that day, but the bottom line was that Mac would need a wall resection to save the hoof.  We planned a time, he came, and Mac was lame on that hoof.  Farrier Mario didn't feel comfortable proceeding at the farm, where we had a lot of mud at the time, working on a horse that likely had also developed an abscess to complicate matters, and he felt the hoof should also be x-rayed first.

I'm fortunate enough to live only about 1/2 hour drive from the Cornell University Vet Equine Hospital, and after a conversation with a vet and the head farrier there, we decided to trailer Mac there.  Trailering Mac was a big deal.  He was nearly completely blind; he hadn't been off the property in several years since he became blind; my other horse "Babe" would have to go along as his babysitter, seeing-eye-horse.  She is also pretty much retired and hadn't been off the property in a few years.  Could we manage this without Mac losing it????

 I was so worried how Mac would react to things, but he did fine as long as Babe was within a foot or two of him at all times.  Mac went to x-ray; Babe went to x-ray; Mac went to the treatment room; Babe went to the treatment room.  My friend, Mike (technically Mac's owner), and I had the good sense to enlist the help of a local teenager, Michaela, who has helped care for the horses when I've been unable to for medical reasons.  I assigned her to Babe and she also ran all those "oh can you get this from the trailer--we forgot" stuff that came in so handy.   My knee was killing me from a torn meniscus; Mike is not very experienced with horse handling when things get a little tricky, and he was also very overwhelmed about dealing with the whole "sick Mac" situation.  Michaela was a Godsend, and it was so much easier with her there.  She handled the difficult day better than most adults I know.  What a blessing!

It was an unusual situation for the Cornell staff as well.  The ones we were working with hadn't had to deal with a situation of a tightly bonded pair like Babe and Mac--with Mac blind AND not having been trailered or off the farm since he became blind.  They were great, though.  After the initial history, paperwork, general exam, Mac (and Babe) went to x-ray.  We waited outside for what seemed like forever, which wasn't setting well with me--they must be discussing some difficult things.  Finally, they emerged from the x-ray room.  Showed us the films and explained what was going on.  The infection had progressed to at least half of his coffin bone.  He had both a fungal and a bacterial infection.  The two vets and the head farrier explained the possible treatment.  Surgical debridement of the hoof, including the coffin bone.  After that, he would have a shoe with a metal plate covering the sole that would be removed daily for treatments at home.  He would be on stall rest for probably at least 2 months ... IF it all worked perfectly.  Keeping him stalled for two months would be very difficult.  He didn't like being in a stall since going blind; he freaked out if Babe was taken out of her neighboring stall---it would be prison for both of them ... again, IF the treatment plan worked and he could recover from extensive debridement and didn't develop a complication, like a secondary infection.  We talked it over and came to the agonizing decision to euthanize him there at Cornell so he wouldn't have to be trailered again back home.

Then, we had to figure out the logistics of euthanizing a blind horse who needed his seeing-eye-horse friend with him every step of the way.  Mike and I also wanted to be present, and as close to Mac as the vets would let us be (for safety reasons they had some rules about that)--he was going to die surrounded by his loved ones.  Surprisingly, the vet said most owners don't want to be present and they had NEVER had another horse involved in the process like Babe would need to be.  They sedated Mac and Babe before walking out to their "euthanizing paddock"--they really do have a tarp-surrounded paddock for this purpose.  Again, everything was fine with Babe leading the way.  Mac was calm, went down quietly, and it was a peaceful good bye.  Babe was brought in to see his body to help her understand that he was gone.  She didn't seem to care and was more interested in eating some nearby grass.  Oh, OK--I guess she wasn't affected by it in a bad way.  Whew!  That was a relief.

We led Babe back through the hospital hallways to go back to the holding stall.  As we got farther away from Mac, she kept looking behind her with this confused look ... which progressed to panic.  They gave her more sedation, but by the time she was back to the stall, she was SO distraught.  Babe is a very stoic horse.  I had owned her for 12 years at the time and had NEVER seen her react that way to anything.

We spent a lot of time soothing Babe.  She calmed enough where we felt we could go to the office to settle up the bill and paperwork.  Michaela was left to keep an eye on her.  We came back 10 minutes later to hear Babe screaming and Michaela trying to calm her.  Michaela said she had gotten upset again right after we left.  I spent some more time with her, she settled down, and we were able to load her in the trailer for the ride home without incident.

Babe was a little depressed the next couple of days, but appeared to adjust.  She was in a pasture by herself, but it bordered the minis' pasture and she could reach over the fence if she wanted to.  She stuck kind of close to them for a couple of days, but then ventured off when grazing.  I think she still misses him, months later, but she's doing fairly well, although there is just something "different" about her--I do think this experience had a lasting effect on her.  I still choose to keep the mini's separated from her due to the size difference and my fear that Rosie, my youngster (much more to come about the mini-update and this little rowdy girl in my next post), will irritate Babe and may not get out of the way if Babe decides to teach that little runt a lesson.

I'm going to end here just because of the length of the post.  I apologize for the depressing post, but this is part of life with horses.  I PROMISE more fun and joyful posts to follow.  LOTS to talk about with the mini's.

Rest in peace dear Mac and Lucky.  Our lives are better for having you in it.